Milwaukee Bucks: Takeaways From Loss To Philadelphia 76ers
By Adam McGee
Giannis Needs Help
At half time in Monday’s game, Giannis Antetokounmpo had already amassed 21 points and was on pace for his career-high.
Foul trouble would significantly limit his opportunities in the second half, and the Greek Freak would only pick up two more points. Put simply, the Bucks needed someone else to step up, and that’s a trend that has become increasingly apparent in recent weeks.
Although many of his points came in garbage time, Jabari Parker chipped in with 23 points, which to be fair to Jabari he is usually prone to do. Monroe offered 14 points of his own which certainly helped too.
The problem comes when Michael Beasley, John Henson, Tony Snell, Matthew Dellavedova, Mirza Teletovic and Jason Terry combine for only 33 points in 124 minutes between them. The Bucks need as many of their key role players as possible to get themselves in the 8-10 point range on a nightly basis.
When that happens, the contributions of Parker and Antetokounmpo are suddenly enough to get them over the line. As Beasley showed against the Spurs last week, an even bigger night from a role player can even be enough to survive without them.
Next: Win In 6 Podcast #96: Tinkering With Bench Rotations
Overall, the Bucks bench has offered a nice scoring punch this season, but it needs to remain consistent. It was lacking in the double header with Atlanta and Philadelphia, and as such Giannis, in particular, was left to shoulder way too much of the scoring load.